File photo shows the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, linking the country to the United States.

Officials from the administration of US President Donald Trump have reportedly held clandestine meetings with a far-right Canadian separatist group, a report says, as tensions between the neighbors continue to escalate.

The officials met multiple times with leaders of the Alberta Prosperity Project, a fringe far-right group seeking to split oil-rich Alberta from Canada, The Financial Times reported on Thursday.

US officials have held three meetings in Washington with the separatists since last April, it added.

The revelations come as US-Canada relations have hit a low point, underscored by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney`s warning of a global "rupture" during a Davos speech widely read as a rebuke of Trump`s trade and foreign policies.

The separatists have openly framed US-Canada friction as an opportunity.

"The US is extremely enthusiastic about a free and independent Alberta," said the group`s lawyer Jeff Rath, who also claimed, "We`re meeting very, very senior people leaving our meetings to go directly to the Oval Office."

The group is reportedly seeking another Washington meeting to request a $500 billion US credit facility to bankroll Alberta, where Carney grew up, if an independence referendum passes - despite the fact that no such referendum has been called.

This is while US officials have publicly denied backing the Alberta Prosperity Project, even as the meetings themselves went undisputed.

"Administration officials meet with a number of civil society groups. No such support, or any other commitments, was conveyed," a White House spokesperson told The FT.

A source familiar with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said his team was unaware of any credit request and had no plans to engage.

In Canada, critics were blunt, with Carlo Dade of the Canada West Foundation dismissing the separatists as "attention seekers," adding, "The Americans are more than happy to continue to play Canadians off each other."

Separatist enthusiasm spiked after Bessent described Alberta as "a natural partner for the US" on the right-wing outlet Real America`s Voice, remarking, "The Albertans are very independent people," and floating a "rumor" of a possible referendum.

The Alberta Prosperity Project aims to collect 177,000 signatures to force a legislative debate by May but has refused to say how many it has gathered.

Reacting to the report, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith`s office said the "overwhelming majority of Albertans are not interested in becoming a US state," while an anti-secession petition opposing independence drew 438,568 signatures last year.

Alberta Federation of Labor president Gil McGowan also framed the situation as "foreign interference."

"It doesn`t feel organic. We are being targeted by the MAGA crowd," he added.

Recent Ipsos polling also shows roughly seven in 10 Albertans would vote to remain in Canada, reinforcing how marginal the separatist cause remains.

The meetings add to a broader pattern of US pressure on Canada.

Trump has threatened 100 percent tariffs if Canada deepens trade ties with China, mocked Canadian sovereignty by suggesting it become the 51st US state, and alarmed Ottawa with his push to acquire Greenland, despite Canada sharing a 1,864-mile maritime border with the territory.

The US president even circulated an AI-generated map depicting Canada as US land.

More recently, Washington warned it could alter the NORAD defense pact if Canada scaled back its planned purchase of 88 F-35 fighter jets/

US Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said the US would "fill those gaps," potentially expanding American intervention in Canadian airspace and rewriting Cold War-era security terms.